suportar

Forms

suportar (first-person singular present suporto, first-person singular preterite suportei, past participle suportado)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote soportar;^[2][3] Houaiss also records ssoportauam (1393) and the 15th-century spellings seportar, sobportarmos and ssoportar.^[2][3] Soportar remained the usual spelling into the 18th century: Cardoso (1569), Pereira (1697) and Bluteau head the word so.^[4][5][6] Feijó (1734) enters the Latinising supportar, and Vieira lists both soportar and supportar.^[7][8]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin supportō (“to carry up, convey”), written Old Galician-Portuguese soportar in the oldest texts.^[2][3][9] Nascentes calls it a semi-learned word, while Wiktionary treats it as a learned borrowing from Latin; the REW lists the Portuguese verb among the Romance outcomes of the Latin verb.^[9][1][10]

The same Latin verb is Galician soportar, Spanish soportar, Catalan suportar and Italian sopportare.^[10][11] In French, supporter was first soporter (about 1190) and was remade after the Latin in 1385.^[12]

The Latin verb is formed from sub- (“under, up from below”) and portō (“to carry”).^[13][1] In classical Latin it meant “to carry or convey to a place”, especially supplies to an army; the senses “to tolerate, endure” and “to support, help” are Late and Medieval Latin.^[13][14][15]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Cantigas de Santa Maria (cantiga 53), where the Virgin warns that one m'averedes eno col' a soportar “will have to carry me on your neck”: the physical sense “to carry, bear the weight of”.^[16]

Semantic evolution

Cardoso's dictionary of 1569 renders soportar with Latin tolero “I endure”, and Pereira (1697) adds patior and sustineo.^[4][5] Bluteau gives two senses, “to suffer with patience” and “to resist, hold out”, as when one man alone withstood the whole onslaught of the enemy.^[6] Morais (1789) has the weight first, then resisting the enemy or the artillery, then enduring pains and insults.^[17]

Houaiss orders the modern senses the same way: holding up a load, being able to carry it, withstanding a force, undergoing pain or cold, enduring a moral suffering with resignation, and putting up with something or someone unpleasant, also reciprocally (suportar-se).^[2] The European dictionary of the Academia adds “to bear the cost of” and, in negative sentences, a strong dislike.^[18]

The noun suporte “support, stand” is a separate borrowing from French support;^[3] Cunha dates it to 1858.^[3]

Timeline

• 13th century – the Cantigas de Santa Maria use soportar “to carry”.^[16]
• 1393 – the form ssoportauam.^[2]
• c. 1430 – soportar in the Horto do Esposo (copied 1390–1437).^[19]
• 15th century – soportável “bearable” is recorded.^[3]
• 1545 – soportara in a private letter.^[20]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses soportar with Latin tolero.^[4]
• 1734 – Feijó's Orthographia enters the spelling supportar.^[7]
• 1789 – Morais heads the word soportar;^[17][2] Houaiss dates the spelling supportar to the same year.^[17][2]
• 1844 – first record of insuportável;^[3] suportável follows in 1881.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To hold up (a load) without giving way; to bear, support: As vigas suportam o telhado.^[2][21][18]
2. To be able to carry or lift (a certain weight).^[2][22]
3. To withstand, hold firm against (a force, an attack, an ordeal).^[2][23]
4. To undergo or endure (something painful), especially with patience: suportar o calor do verão.^[2][24]
5. To tolerate, put up with (something or someone unpleasant); in negative sentences, to be unable to stand: Não suporto barulho de manhã.^[2][18][1]
6. (reflexive) To put up with each other, to get along despite differences.^[2]
7. To bear the cost of, pay for.^[18][25]

Word family

• insuportável
• suportável

Related words

• suporte
• portar
• Latin supportō
• Galician soportar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. suportar
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. suportar
4. ^ a b c Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. soportar
5. ^ a b Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. soportar
6. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. soportar
7. ^ a b Feijó, João de Morais Madureira (1734), Orthographia, ou Arte de escrever, e pronunciar com acerto a lingua portugueza, Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. supportar
8. ^ Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 5, 592
9. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. suportar
10. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. supportare
12. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
13. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. supportō
14. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. supportare
15. ^ Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es
16. ^ a b Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. soportar
17. ^ a b c Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 419
18. ^ a b c d Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. suportar
19. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. soportar
20. ^ CLUL (ed.) (2014), P.S. Post Scriptum: Arquivo Digital de Escrita Quotidiana em Portugal e Espanha na Época Moderna, Lisboa: Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, http://ps.clul.ul.pt, p. s.v. suportar
21. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. suportar
22. ^ Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. suportar
23. ^ Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. suportar
24. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. suportar
25. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 8735